Sleepy Hollow Shooting Script
Lady Van Tassel caresses the man’s chest, neck, face… trailing blood. The man lifts his head, in ecstasy, sucking the woman’s bloody fingers … it’s REVEREND STEENWYCK.
Ichabod backs away, having seen more than enough.
EXT. FOREST BY VAN TASSEL ESTATE (HILLSIDE)-NIGHT
Ichabod returns to Young Masbath’s side.
YOUNG MASBATH What was there?
ICHABOD Something I wish I had not seen. A beast with two backs.
YOUNG MASBATH (wow!) A beast with… ? What next in these bewitched woods?!
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, ICHABOD’S ROOM-NIGHT
Ichabod and Young Masbath enter.
Ichabod sees that his desk drawer is slightly open.
He opens the drawer knowing the worst.
The documents have been taken.
Masbath suddenly sniffs the air. He signals to Ichabod, alert. He shiffs again… and in the grate is the source of the smell: the documents burned to ashes.
Ichabod, in despondency, brings his finger to his head, rubbing his temples.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KITCHEN-DAY
LADY VAN TASSEL She will not see you.
She is talking to Ichabod. Her hand is loosely bandaged.
ICHABOD Did she say… anything?
LADY VAN TASSEL Only that she will not come down.
ICHABOD I see. Thank you.
Ichabod turns to go.
LADY VAN TASSEL Constable, you have not asked me how I hurt my hand since yesterday… which would have been polite. In fact you have been as careful not to look at it as not to mention it.
She strips off the bandage to show a roughly sewn cut.
ICHABOD Yes-I’m sorry… How did you… ?
Lady Van Tassel GRABS Ichabod by the wrist, tight…
LADY VAN TASSEL (whispering close) I know you saw me.
ICHABOD What… ?
LADY VAN TASSEL I know you followed last night. You must promise not to tell my husband what you saw… promise me…
Ichabod tries to pull away, but she grips tighter. The FRONT DOOR is HEARD SLAMMING. Ichabod is panicky.
LADY VAN TASSEL (CONT’D) Reverend Steenwyck has power over me.
ICHABOD P-p-power… ?
LADY VAN TASSEL He knows something terrible against my dear husband-what you witnessed was the price of Steenwyck’s silence.
ICHABOD What does Steenwyck know?
Footsteps approach the door, the handle turns.
LADY VAN TASSEL Later-later…
She pulls away just as Baltus enters.
BALTUS The town is in a ferment. Horror piled on tragedy-Hardenbrook is dead-strangled.
Baltus goes straight to a flagon on the side table and lifts it to his lips. Ichabod stares at Baltus’s strong hands gripping the neck of the flagon.
LADY VAN TASSEL Oh… ! That harmless old man?
BALTUS Hanged himself in the night!
ICHABOD Hanged himself?
BALTUS Reverend Steenwyck has called a meeting at the church-tonight. Every man, woman and child. (to Ichabod) He will speak against you-if you are wise you will be gone from here. Steenwyck’s congregation is already halfway to being a mob.
ICHABOD I will go when I have done what I came to do.
Lady Van Tassel comes to calm her husband. Baltus notices her wound.
BALTUS What is this?
LADY VAN TASSEL I was careless with the kitchen knife- BALTUS The wound looks angry- LADY VAN TASSEL I’ll bind it later with wild arrowroot flowers-I know where I’ll find some. Will you ride with me?
Ichabod slips silently out of the room.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, STAIRS-DAY
Ichabod goes up the stairs.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, SECOND FLOOR-DAY
Ichabod knocks quietly at Katrina’s door. No answer. He quietly opens the door.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KATRINA’S ROOM-DAY
Katrina’s bed has been slept in but it’s empty and she is not there.
But in the grate there is the telltale heap of charred paper and ash, recognizable as Ichabod’s documents.
A sound at the door makes him whip around. It is Young Masbath.
YOUNG MASBATH I saw her riding away towards the old pasture.
INT. WINDMILL-DAY
A small PILE of STRAW burns. GLOVED HANDS unfold a paper filled with HAIR CLIPPINGS, which are sprinkled on the fire.
A cloaked FIGURE kneels at the pile. This person removes a HUMAN SKULL from a cloth bag.
The skull is placed at center in the flames. It’s teeth are sharp, cut to points-the HORSEMAN’S SKULL.
INT. VAN TASSEL ESTATE-FIELDS-DAY
Ichabod rides Gunpowder, approaching the Ruined Cottage. He finds Katrina crouched over the hearthstone. Her horse grazes. She hears his horse and turns.
ICHABOD Katrina…
Ichabod dismounts. Katrina had made a small fire. She is “doing magic.” Mumbling. She turns to look at Ichabod in anger and tears.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) (sympathetically) You took the papers and burned them… ?
KATRINA So that you would not have them to accuse my father… !
ICHABOD I… I accuse no one… but if there is guilt I cannot alter it no matter how much it grieves me… and no spells of yours can alter it either…
KATRINA If you knew my father you would not have such harsh thoughts about him -no, nor if you felt anything for me!
ICHABOD (in torment) I am pinioned by a chain of reasoning! Why else did his four friends conspire to conceal… ?
KATRINA You are the Constable, not I-so find another chain of reasoning and let me be.
ICHABOD I cannot-not the one or the other. I am heartsick with it.
KATRINA I think you have no heart-and I had a mind once to give you mine.
Katrina mounts her horse, which rears up. She is momentarily like a female warrior, her eyes ablaze with anger and tears.
ICHABOD (cries out) Yes-I think you loved me that day when you followed me into the Western Woods! -to have braved such peril!
KATRINA (scornfully) What peril was there for me if it was my own father who controlled the Headless Horseman?! Good-bye, Ichabod Crane! I curse the day you came to Sleepy Hollow!
Ichabod watches her gallop away and hides his anguished face for comfort in Gunpowder’s neck.
EXT. FIELD AND COPSE-EVENING
A distant bell is tolling as Baltus waits on his horse… watching where Lady Van Tassel can be glimpsed among the spaced trees gathering “arrowroot flowers.”
BALTUS (calls out) Come. Hurry up! The meeting bell has started toning.
He looks anxiously toward the vinage, then back to the trees… where to his horror he sees… the Headless Horseman moves slowly toward Lady Van Tassel, calmly unsheathing his sword.
EXT. SLEEPY HOLLOW, CHURCH-NIGHT
People are entering the Church while the bell tolls them in… watched grimly by Steenwyck.
EXT. SLEEPY HOLLOW TOWN SQUARE, CHURCH-NIGHT
More people are heading toward the Church. In the shadows, Ichabod, hatted and cloaked to make himself look anonymous, also watches the people going by… and sees Katrina among them.
Baltus comes charging through the TOWN SQUARE on his horse.
BALTUS The Horseman… !
Baltus is barely hanging on. He stops, falling off his horse, scrambling toward Katrina, who is not far from Ichabod.
BALTUS (CONT’D) Save me…
KATRINA Father… ?
BALTUS He killed her…
